Religion: Mystery or Paradox?: Some Salient Themes in Philosophy of Religion

In the globalised world of postmodernity, religion is a topic of much study and discussion, and people often raise such questions as: What is religion? Can it be defined? How did religion originate? How does religion influence the various aspects of human life, society and culture? Is it possible to prove the existence of God? How can one explain the phenomenon of religious experience and why does it have such a great sway over human life? And why do some religions have strong fundamentalist orientations? The present study attempts to respond to these questions with a special emphasis on the ideas of such leading thinkers in the field of religious studies and philosophy of religion as, Anselm of Canterbury, Rudolf Otto, Mircea Eliade, Joachim Wach, Ninian Smart, and Raimon Panikkar.